Mountain Man Triathlon

I competed in my first ever triathlon this afternoon. ASWWU put on the event; it was a 500 yd swim in the WEC Pool, 12K bike ride, and a 5K run at Bennington Lake. The swim portion required two heats and I swam the second. It was a good swim once I got into a rhythm, but the first 3-4 laps were a little rough and my pace was a little slow. I could have definitely done better and its nice to know I have one definite area that needs improvement. I finished the swim in 10min and 58 seconds and in 16th place.
We then headed out to Bennington Lake and began the bike. I was the 16th to head out and was almost a full minute behind the guy in front of me. I caught him and a fairly large group about the second hill. The trail was extremely muddy and made riding very difficult. Hills were impossible, but really helped me. I got off and ran up the hills. That is where I passed most of my competition. On the last hill, I was pretty tired and the bike was just caked. I tried to start pedaling once I got to the pavement section and snapped the derailleur on the bike. I then had to run for a good distance on the pavement till I hit the downhill to T2.
I ran the whole parking lot to the transition and then headed out on the run. The guy I started out the bike behind was just ahead of me when I started the run and I passed him within the first few minutes. The run was good, my heart rate was about 10bpm higher than I wanted it to be but I was carrying a couple pounds of mud and water on my shoes. There was one hill that was a little rough but overall it was a great run.
Final time was 1 hour and 11 minutes, not sure about the place but I am guessing I was in the top 10. Overall an awesome day! Can't wait till my next Triathlon, I love this sport!

Official Member of Team FCA Endurance

Received my letter in the mail today telling me I was an accepted member of the team. We are looking for financial support to help spread our message even more so if interested please let me know! It's a great ministry with an awesome statement of belief. They are doing some really good things already and I am excited about what the future holds. I already posted it once but here is the statement of beliefs.

I am a Christian first and last. I am created in the likeness of God Almighty to bring Him glory. I am a member of Team Jesus Christ. I wear the colors of the cross. I am a Competitor now and forever. I am made to strive, to strain, to stretch and to succeed in the arena of competition. I am a Christian Competitor and as such, I face my challenger with the face of Christ. I do not trust in myself. I do not boast in my abilities or believe in my own strength. I rely solely on the power of God. I compete for the pleasure of my Heavenly Father, the honor of Christ and the reputation of the Holy Spirit. My attitude on and off the field is above reproach - my conduct beyond criticism. Whether I am preparing, practicing or playing; I submit to God's authority and those He has put over me. I respect my coaches, officials, teammates and competitors out of respect for the Lord. My body is the temple of Jesus Christ. I protect it from within and without. Nothing enters my body that does not honor the Living God. My sweat is an offering to my Master. My soreness is a sacrifice to my Savior. I give my all - all of the time. I do not give up. I do not give in. I do not give out. I am the Lord’s warrior - a competitor by conviction and a disciple of determination. I am confident beyond reason because my confidence lies in Christ. The results of my efforts must result in His glory. LET THE COMPETITION BEGIN. LET THE GLORY BE GOD'S.

Our Vision: To Impact- to see the endurance world impacted for Jesus Christ through the influence of athletes and coaches

Our Mission: To Present- to present athletes and coaches, and all whom they influence, the challenge and adventure of receiving Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, serving him in their relationships and in the fellowship of the church

Our Purpose: To Unite and Equip- we are uniting and equipping Christian endurance athletes to grow in their relationship with Jesus Christ and share that faith with others.

Our Plan: Teamwork- God is bringing together a National Team of Christian endurance athletes who love the Lord, love the sport, and feel called to impact those withing their sport for Jesus Christ. Through coming together, those on the Team are able to experience the countless blessings of Christian community with those whom they share endurance passion. More importantly, they are able to have a much bigger impact on the endurance world together than as individuals.

Triple Iron 422 Promotional Video from FCA on Vimeo.

Frigid

The weather outside is turning towards winter and much sooner than I would like. I got up at 6:30 on saturday for the Hailstone group ride and there was ice on the ground and even with multiple layers of cool weather cycling gear I was still finding it very difficult to stay warm. I ended up riding about 4 blocks to a friends apartment that I was going to ride with before deciding there was no way that I was going to rough 35 miles in that cold. I ended up riding later that day at 3pm and it was still extremely cold. I had to stop several times just to warm up a little bit.

Swimming has been going really well! I really enjoy it and am even starting to enjoy the early morning wakeup, its a great way to start the day. My breathing technique really needs to improve, I tend to get off rhythm often and it spikes my heart rate and slows me down.

Running is still painful, my left knee is especially giving me trouble. My heart rate and feet turnover rate is very good right now just need to keep it up.

Ironman World Championships was on sunday, would love to do that someday! Craig Alexander won back to back becoming only the 4th Male athlete ever. That victory was overshadowed though by Chrissie Whelingtons extraordinary day. She won her third straight Ironman title by almost 20 minutes and broke the course record. Legitamately laying claim to being one of the greatest female triathletes ever.

I Love Ironman!

Keep On Keeping On

So its been almost a full week since my last update. But I have continued to work out even though the blogging is a little lacking. I have been getting up at 6am Monday Tuesday and Thursday's and swimming. I have been doing a lot of drill work for about 20 minutes or so and then swimming laps after that. It's getting better, I feel myself moving through the water much better and using less energy to do it. I got a heart rate monitor and have been monitoring that pretty closely. I am trying to stay above 130 and below 160 most of the time. I rode 20 miles yesterday and it was my first ride with the monitor. I really struggled to keep my heart rate down, whenever there was an uphill or I pushed hard my heart rate spiked up to 180 or 190 and I really had to relax to get it back down. So in the next few rides I am going to really work on improving my heart rate control. Running is awful, I really don't like it. It kills my knees and feet! But I will continue to work at it and keep on keeping on.